


Ozymandias

by segerge



Series: TASK FORCE [65]
Category: HERO Champions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 18:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7584598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/segerge/pseuds/segerge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(August 2022) Bob and Sergei are forced to decide whether or not to discontinue life support for their dying father -- Doctor Destroyer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ozymandias

**Author's Note:**

> #### DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
> 
> **heroes**
> 
>   * Julie Dormyer Hawkins (AKA Ladyhawk), 45th President of the United States
>   * Dr. Bob Hawkins (AKA Starforce), First Gentleman and Science Advisor to the President
>   * Ted Jameson (AKA Ranger), Director-General of UNTIL
> 

> 
> **villains**
> 
>   * Sergei Varinnikov (AKA Warlord), President-for-life of the Republic of Central Asia
> 

> 
> **AUTHOR'S NOTE 1** : Internal monologue is denoted by [[ ]]
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S NOTE 2** : Bob and Julie are 60 years old chronologically and 45 physically.
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S NOTE 3** : Sergei's retort to Ted concerning good men and saving civilization is taken almost word-for-word from a quote by Horace Walpole; the lines he quotes at the end are from the sonnet 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S NOTE 4** : Suggested music is [Before Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RUsJOMK2ms) by Thomas Bergersen.
> 
> * * *

(New Spandau Ultramax Security Prison, somewhere in the Australian Outback)

(Ted 'Ranger' Jameson and Sergei 'Warlord' Varinnikov, both in civilian clothes, wait impassively in the front courtyard of the prison complex as the sun begins to set. Sergei's hair is iron-grey and his face is weathered with age. A platoon of UNTIL agents stands around them, weapons at the ready)

(without fanfare, a pinkish swirl grows in the front courtyard and stabilizes. Bob 'Starforce' Hawkins and Julie 'Ladyhawk' Hawkins step through, and the swirl collapses and vanishes behind them. There is a touch of grey around Bob's temples, and Julie is wearing glasses)

 **Starforce** (deadpan, to Sergei): "Get good readings this time?"

 **Warlord** : "The guards confiscated my sensors after I arrived."

 **Starforce** : "That's not sporting of them!"

 **Ranger** : "Standard operating procedure." (beat, annoyed) "Bob, *what* is Sergei doing here?"

 **Starforce** (coldly): "I invited him."

 **Warlord** : "I didn't want to when he originally extended the offer, but my curiosity got the better of me."

 **Ladyhawk** : "You've never met Doctor Destroyer?"

 **Warlord** : "I never had the privilege, Madam President."

 **Starforce** : "I did. At point-blank range at Detroit." (snorting humorously) "That's what he should have called his Destroyer-Beam. Privilege."

 **Ladyhawk** (hitting Bob): "Stop it!"

 **Ranger** (turning toward the main building): "This way."

(the rest of the party follows Ted. The UNTIL agents form up around them as both an honor guard and a protective detail)

 **Ladyhawk** (looking at the UNTIL agents): "I know my Secret Service detail insisted on an escort, but I wasn't expecting it to be *quite* this big..."

 **Ranger** : "You can thank President Varinnikov's presence for that. Especially in light of the numerous UN Resolutions he and his nation are currently in violation of."

 **Warlord** : "Remind me again when the last attack of radical islamists was in the civilized world, Theodore?"

 **Ranger** : "How can you sleep at night knowing the atrocities you authorized during both World War VIPER *and* the South Asian War?"

 **Warlord** : "No civilization was ever saved by good men because good men will not go to the lengths that may be necessary." (beat) "You're welcome, by the way."

 **Ladyhawk** (interrupting Ted before he can respond): "Ted?"

(Ted looks at Julie, who is staring at him over the top rims of her glasses)

 **Ladyhawk** (calmly but with authority): "Drop it."

 **Ranger** (beat, shaking his head): "Where did you *learn* that tone of voice?"

 **Ladyhawk** (shrugging her shoulders): "From you."

 **Starforce** : "You used it on us all the time back in the day."

(in spite of himself, Ted smiles)

(the procession stops in front of a guarded vault door with a forcewall shimmering in front of it)

 **Guard** : "President Varinnikov will need to stay outside..."

 **Starforce** (coldly): "Albert Zerstoiten was as much Sergei Varinnikov's father as he was mine. He enters with me. This discussion is over."

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Ranger** : "I'll vouch for President Varinnikov's behavior."

 **Guard** (stepping aside): "Yes, Director-General."

 **Starforce** (murmured, to Ted): "Thank you."

(the guards start keying in code sequences on two keypads. Beat, then the forcewall drops as the door ponderously unlocks)

 **Ranger** (to the escort detail): "Wait out here."

(Ted, Bob, Julie, and Sergei enter the vault. A hot-sleep pod occupies a pedestal in the center of the room, with medical instrumentation and life-support equipment arrayed all around it. A doctor and two med-techs hover around the equipment)

 **Doctor** : "Ah, Director-General! Madam President, Dr. Hawkins..."

(the doctor trails off uncomfortably as he looks at Sergei)

 **Starforce** : "He's with us. He needs to be here, too."

 **Doctor** (beat): "Uh, okay."

 **Ranger** (to the doctor): "Status?"

 **Doctor** : "Unchanged. The systemic organ failure which started last week is now irreversible." (sweeps an arm across the medical equipment) "The only thing keeping him alive right now is this equipment."

 **Ranger** : "Bob, is there anything he might know that would require us to keep him alive?"

 **Starforce** : "If there is, he never left any hints with either Sennacherib or the people of Javangiri that I've ever found." (beat) "Any secrets he has left have kept to themselves. And are likely to stay that way."

(Sergei has been listening to the conversation the past few seconds and looks puzzled)

 **Warlord** (waving a hand toward the pod): "Shouldn't he have lasted far longer in hot-sleep?"

 **Doctor** : "Normally, yes. However, the circumstances surrounding his capture and incarceration 10 years ago were... highly stressful."

 **Starforce** : "When we all fought on the Pyramid of the Sun, he was 95 years old and had been living in his battlesuit 24/7 for two decades to sustain his body." (beat) "The systemic shock from both his malfunctioning armor and being forcibly separated from it may have been too much for him to handle. If it hadn't been for him being in hot-sleep, he probably would have died from that years ago."

 **Ladyhawk** : "That sounds like withdrawal symptoms."

 **Starforce** : "Basically."

 **Warlord** : "I thought the nanotech virus you infected him with there was only supposed to target Destreum."

 **Starforce** : "It did. Remember, I took the exact same attack a month later attempting to subdue Rochemont in the War Armor and the only thing I suffered physically was the humiliation of losing." /* "The Destroyer Wars" */

 **Ranger** (subtly clearing his throat): "If we can get on with the business at hand, people?"

 **Starforce** : "Sorry." (to the doctor) "Are we here for the reason which I think we are?"

 **Doctor** : "Yes, Dr. Hawkins. There's nothing more that medical science can do for your father, and I need the authorization of a surviving family member to discontinue life support."

 **Starforce** (beat): "There's no other way?"

 **Doctor** : "None other that are humane."

 **Ranger** : "That's more than he ever offered anyone who opposed him in his career." (beat) "More than he deserves."

 **Starforce** : "You think I don't know that?"

(tense pause, then Bob looks away from the pod and shakes his head)

 **Starforce** : "I can't do this, guys..."

 **Warlord** : "You've taken human life before, brother..."

 **Starforce** : "Not like this!"

 **Ladyhawk** (holding Bob): "You have to, Bob."

 **Starforce** : "Why?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Forty years ago I was looking at FOIA request denials scattered on the table in front of your computer..."

 **Starforce** (interrupting, smiling): "At least you finally admitted you broke into my first apartment."

 **Ladyhawk** (hitting him softly): "Stop it!" (beat) "What Albert Zerstoiten did to your mother defined you as much as what VIPER did to my parents. You need closure."

(long pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** (softly): "Is that an order, President Ninjette?"

 **Ladyhawk** (softly): "It is something your wife is telling you that you need to do."

(beat, then he kisses her)

 **Starforce** (to the doctor): "Where's the cutoff switch to his equipment?"

 **Doctor** (indicating a control box off to the side): "Over here."

(Bob looks at Ted for a moment, who merely nods. He walks hesitantly over to the cutoff switch and rests his hand on it. It uncharacteristically trembles as he stares at Albert Zerstoiten's face inside of the hot-sleep pod, then he feels another hand join his on the cutoff switch. Shocked, he turns around to see that Sergei has joined him)

 **Starforce** : "Sergei, you don't have to..."

 **Warlord** (interrupting): "You were right when you confronted the guards in front of the vault. I may never have known him like you did, but Albert Zerstoiten was as much my father as he was yours."

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Warlord** (continuing): "My papa Yuri was a good man and a good father, probably like your uncle was back in Indianapolis. But if I was just the son of a hero of Stalingrad in the Great Patriotic War, would I ever have founded the Republic of Central Asia? Would the Tethys Sea have been recreated? Would Humanity have had a warp-capable fleet to oppose Istvatha V'Han and the Gadroon?"

(long pause)

 **Warlord** (pointing to the hot-sleep pod): "Everything I've done for thirty years... Everything I've DARED... was because *this* man was my real father." (beat) "The least I can give back to him is some dignity in the manner of his demise."

 **Starforce** : "Yet you would still let the worst supervillain in human history define you as a man?"

 **Warlord** (looking at the pod): "He motivated me, Robert. He never defined me." (beat, then looks back at Bob) "Let's do this."

(Bob nods, and together they flip the cutoff switch. One by one, the various monitors and equipment arrayed around the pod start to flatline)

 **Warlord** (to himself): "And on the pedestal these words appear/'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings/Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

(the last of the monitors flatlines)

 **Warlord** (to himself, continuing): "Nothing beside remains. Round the decay/Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away..."

 **Ranger** (softly): "And so ends the Age of the Destroyer." (beat, to the rest) "Let's go, guys."

(they all turn to leave the Vault)

 **Starforce** : "What will you do with the body?"

 **Ranger** : "Cremation, then a VTOL will take the ashes somewhere south of Australia and scatter them over the ocean. We're not taking any chances this time."

 **Starforce** (to Sergei): "He's remembering that one _Doctor Who_ story where the Master is brought back to life..."

 **Warlord** (deadpan): "Which one?"

(Bob snorts humorously as they exit the Vault)

 **Ladyhawk** : "So what's going to become of New Spandau, then?"

 **Ranger** : "There will always be a need for an Ultramax detention facility."

 **Warlord** (pointedly): "For *me*?"

 **Ranger** : "Not if you don't give us a reason." (beat) "After outprocessing, the facility will be mothballed until such time as a new candidate for incarceration is identified."

 **Starforce** : "Like that alleged Mandaarian diplomat Nathan and the Texas Guard tangled with last month?"

 **Ranger** : "If he continues to be a problem to and on Earth, then yes."

(by this time, they have all left the main building)

 **Ranger** (continuing): "I need to clear up some procedures with the Commandant before I return to HQ." (to Sergei) "Come with me. I'll have a grav-tank take you outside the interdiction zone so you can beam out. After that, the truce is over."

 **Warlord** : "Thank you." (to Bob and Julie) "Brother, Madam President? Until next time."

(he bows slightly at his waist, then follows Ted off to a side building. Long pause as Bob and Julie both stare at the Main Building)

 **Starforce** : "What do I do now with my life?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "You always wanted to terraform a planet, didn't you? That's something Destroyer never bothered to attempt."

 **Starforce** (slow smile): "Yeah, my late father could be a wuss like that sometimes."

 **Ladyhawk** (squeezing his waist): "Now that's the Nerd-boy *I* know." (beat, turns around) "Which one?"

 **Starforce** (getting his smartphone out): "Venus."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Not Mars?"

 **Starforce** (to smartphone): "Portal to home, these coordinates." (to Julie) "Too easy."

(a portal swirls into existence in front of them as they walk toward New Spandau's gate)

 **Ladyhawk** (walking into the portal): "You weren't kidding when you said that to Jay Leno nine years ago, were you?" /* 'Subliminal' */

 **Starforce** (following Julie into the portal): "Nope."

(the portal collapses behind them)

* * *

(fin)


End file.
